Post navigation

Data Backup Day March 1, 2010

Once again we’ve come up to another Data Backup Day! Did you make a New Year’s resolution to do an initial backup of all your genealogy data? And to keep up with periodic backups?

Ways To Backup Your Data

“Back in the day” the ways of securing your data meant copying to CDs or *ugh* even floppy disks (remember those?). Luckily these days we have more and more devices including cheap external drives with 1 TB or more of store and online applications that will backup your data – for free!

Hard Drive: if you have room on your hard drive, create a “copy folder” of your essential data. This not only gives you a second copy but is what you can use to copy out to CDs, DVDs or other media.

CDs and DVDs: if your computer has a CD/DVD burner, you can create your own CDs and DVDs to store data.

External Hard Drive: an external hard drive can connect to your computer via a USB connection and they can hold 1 TB (that’s terabyte as in 1,000 GB) at a relatively cheap price (some under $100). What’s also nice is the size: some can fit in the palm of your hand.

Online Backup Services: there are a variety of sites that allow you to backup your data – some even for free!

Data Types To Backup

The main focus is your research database but think about backing up these items as well:

blog posts and templates

emails

Internet favorites and bookmarks

photos and scanned documents

Data Backup Resources

GeneaBloggers has developed a resource list of data backup methodologies and solutions. Click here to learn how you can backup almost every aspect of your blog, your browser, your computer – even Macs!

Recent Genealogy Blogger Experiences

If you think that data loss can’t happen to you, see what your genealogy blogging colleagues have said recently:

About Thomas MacEntee

What happens when a “tech guy” with a love for history gets laid off during The Great Recession of 2008? You get Thomas MacEntee, a genealogy professional who’s also a blogger, educator, author, social media connector, online community builder and more.
Thomas was laid off after a 25-year career in the information technology field, so he started his own genealogy-related business called High Definition Genealogy. He also created an online community of over 3,000 family history bloggers known as GeneaBloggers. His most recent endeavor, Hack Genealogy, is an attempt to “re-purpose today’s technology for tomorrow’s genealogy.”
Thomas describes himself as a lifelong learner with a background in a multitude of topics who has finally figured out what he does best: teach, inspire, instigate, and serve as a curator and go-to-guy for concept nurturing and inspiration. Thomas is a big believer in success, and that we all succeed when we help each other find success.